The AHA Has Done A 180 (Thank Goodness)

July 2, 2018

One of the biggest hurdles we Health Coaches have to tackle with our clients is to convince them that fat doesn't make you fat. It's a tough one -- the very WORD is the same, after all -- and it's been drilled into our heads for decades now that low-fat foods are "heart healthy." And we (the American public) have been good students, as a whole -- we've switched to skim milk and eschewed egg yolks -- but we're heavier and unhealthier than ever before.

There has been a little press recently on an update from the American Heart Association (AHA). I looked up the report myself and am pleased to report that the press is accurate -- the AHA has reversed its previous advice on the consumption of dietary fat. The AHA states, in this 2018 update to their enormous PDF entitled Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, that "reduction of total fat consumption...had no effect on incidence of CHD (coronary heart disease)...stroke or CVD (cardiovascular disease)." And "saturated fat consumption overall had no significant association with incidence of CHD, stroke, or total CVD."

Woohoo!

And this information was gathered from 3 separate meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies, the largest of which included 21 studies with up to 2 decades of follow-up.

Even better, the report goes on to say that "replacing carbohydrates with unsaturated fats lowered both hemoglobin A1c and insulin." This means that by switching out the (processed) carbohydrates in your diet for healthy fats, you are simultaneously lowering your blood sugar and lowering your risk of heart disease. Which is understandable because most carbohydrates that are labeled "low-fat" (think Cheerios, Wheat Thins) are typically processed grains that have sugar, salt and chemicals added in to replace the flavor lost by removing the fat -- and there's no way that added-in sugar and chemicals can possibly be as good for us as an avocado.

I hope this information will help those who are eating low-fat and not seeing the results they want. Try adding a little bit of fat in to your diet (olive oil, guacamole, grass-fed butter, coconut oil) in place of your low-fat crackers or rice cakes. Eat the whole egg instead of just the whites. Put cream in your coffee instead of skim milk. Your food will taste better, you'll be fuller, you won't have as many "hangry" episodes because your blood sugar will be more stable, and you'll be doing your body good at the same time.